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Arsenal - Barca tonight, I fancy Arsenal to win 3-2 (but get dicked on at the Camp Nou next week). For any betting folks out there, I've successfully predicted the final score of the United and City games so far this week, but failed to bet on them.

Bayern get a late and deserved 2-1 win over Manchester United. Rooney is helped off with an apparent ankle injury and despite there being no word on the severity of the knock yet and the fact that he doesn't have the most impressive record against Chelsea anyway, United's more fickle armchair fans hand in their Sky subscriptions.

Cardiff won 2-1 and Palace eased their woes by increasing Watford's, spanking them 3-0.

Steven Piennar is being linked with Chelsea and Spurs, while O'Neil definitely hasn't quit as Aston Villa manager.

Eh to be honest we have been due a sound beating since the turn of the year and this is probably a blessing in disguise as we have been looking a bit complacent of late, hopefully this means we stop fucking about and see out this league.
Fucking great strike from sheridan to open the scoring and a couple of deflected goals help the saints on the their way. Hats off to saints as they always try and get the ballon the deck and play football.
Lafferty - Get tae fuck!

but yes, I discuss football with him a lot. We've been discussing football for almost 9 years, the only down side is most of our opinions are now very similar especially in terms of the usually irrational liking/disliking of certain clubs.

really worried about tonight i have to say. even if 10 outfield players put in the performance of a lifetime you've got Almunia in goal. go figure. i think if Arsenal concede an early goal we could be looking at an annihilation. hopefully they'll have learnt from the Chelsea and United games that a deficit doesn't mean that they should abandon all defensive discipline and allow themselves to be sliced wide open on the break.

still, should be a great game. it's David Rocastle's anniversary as well, so i'm sure the fans will be singing his name to the rafters.

They played well but the quality of our squad has dropped so much over the last few months, oh for the days of Cooper.

It looks like the playoffs have been decided and with the form the way it is it looks like being a Luton – Diamonds final. Lets just hope Luton win that, I don’t think I could cope with both Stevenage and Rushden going up.

Looks like the top five are sorted there now, just a question of whether Luton can overhaul Stevenage. Exciting scenes. FGR went back into the relegation zone thanks to results elsewhere. I hope they stay up.

Gresley won 6-1. Title is still beyond them unless someone beats Dunkirk over the next couple of weeks, which is highly unlikely. Fourth now with a game in hand on third though.

It comes after Luton have scored about 600 goals in the last three games though so if anyone can beat Stevenage, they can - especially now. Stevenage then play Wimbledon on Monday, which won't be easy, and finish against York who are no pushovers.

And one where United were thoroughly merked. I think the early goal ruined them, firstly because it made it look too easy, but also because it put pressure on Fergie’s tactical plan. I think beforehand he’d be very happy to go one up and then just sit back for the rest of the match, with a 1-1 draw not being the worse result in the world. But because they scored so early there was no chance to actually get a grip of the game and play a bit of football, exert some dominance. It just became 89 minutes of inviting them on, and the final result was on the cards for a large portion of the match.

It’s also fair to say that United just didn’t play well at all. They couldn’t pass a ball, the midfield was non existent and Rooney was doing his old headless chicken routine. On the other hand, Bayern had a tempo, power and dominance befitting of their status in the German league. In many ways it reminded me of the Inter – Chelsea games, where a team that’s used to being the big daddy in their division plays their normal, fearless game against a side perhaps believing their own hype after putting away a load of respectful minnows in the Premiership. There was a sense that United were taking this game lightly, and the early goal seemed to justify that thought. They came as the minnows yesterday, hoping to get a foothold and just see the game out, but Bayern are used to dealing with that, and are used to applying constant pressure to get what they want from a game. This season they’re also very used to conceding first then having to win the game in the closing stages, so they were well practiced for this challenge. I just hope they can do the same in the next leg.

RE: Arsenal – Barca tonight, should be an excellent game. I think Barca are slightly overrated, and away from home this season they’ve been far from convincing, but they should have enough to put this wide open Arsenal side to the sword. When you’re giving Birmingham a dozen chances then you’ve got big problems against Barcelona, who I’m sure will relish the chance to take on a side who don’t just stick 10 men behind the ball. The only thing about Barca is that they do allow their opponents a few chances in front of goal, but they’re normally so rattled by facing the Barca onslaught that they waste them. If Arsenal can convert a couple then they could be getting somewhere.. but we all know what Arsenal are like when it comes to spurning chances

Played our usual formation and tactics away in Europe. We were just fucking atrocious. If you keep giving the ball away in midfield you aren't going to create many chances. As it was Rooney could have had three, and Bayern's central defence is pretty poor and we didn't really put any pressure on them.

was just like milan. awful midfield performance yet lots of chances. as you said rooney should have had a hat-trick, nani had a good chance with only the keeper to beat (although he was under great pressure) and we hit the crossie twice.

old trafford will be a different story obviously, but its gonna be tight.

also, their first goal has been given as an own goal, surely? if not i expect half of our own goals to be wiped off.

was that Mario Gomez cost BM £24m - is this right? Wow, what a stupendous waste of money. I also found out that SKY aren't imnmune to bouts of ITVitis - their constant referencing of the '99 cup final was tiresome: '...Olic plays the role Solskjar, if you will' etc.

Anyway, as mentioned last night - United were terrible. I'd put the blame on the midfield, although Evra had a shocker as well. I don't care who they're up against I'd expect a central core of Carrick, Fletcher and Scholes to close down and out ball any midfield who tries playing two through the centre, but they couldn't get near the ball.
Add Evra to the mix and you get four plays who either gave the ball away with every pass or dicked about too long and got caught in possession.
Rooney had no support, and when Dimi came on the two of them had to backtrack to help cover the awful midfield.

But that's not to say that Munich weren't immense Altintop was a star, Neville couldn't cope with Ribery, and Olic should have had a hat-trick.

The next leg won't be anything like this, I expect the midfield to MTFU and only needing one goal to do it I still have to pin my colours to Fergie's mast on this one.

I'm loving it - best in living memory for me...3 genuine title contenders, 3/4 genuine 4th spot contenders, West Ham in free fall, it's been a belter thus far.

From a Spurs fan's perspective too, it's been great. We have, imo, the strongest squad i can remember (i.e. going back to around '87), with brilliant young players thorughout the squad, some of the most exciting attacking players around at the moment and a manager who (generally) really knows what he's doing with regards tactics etc. IF we make the 4th CL spot, it'll be amazing...and kind of something i never really expected to happen. Obviously, we've still got time to bottle it as has been customary in recent years, but hey, this late in the season is not normally this exciting for us. Even if we don't make it, the chance that the 'big 4' will be broken up is also quite exciting, although should City take it and continue to invest, another 'big 4' could come into existence.

Other clubs/people what have done good:
Wolves/McCarthy/Kevin Doyle
Bolton under Coyle (and fair play to him for his move to the Reebok)
Stoke/Pulis
Brum/Big Eck
Everton, latterly/Moyes
Some of the good deeds done at Pompey - the wage cuts etc.

Now that the 4th placed side will have to face a Spanish/German/Italian/decent side to qualify, are you really convinced that this fight for 4th place is really, really worth it? Is it finishing 4th you really want, or will that mean fuck all to you if you still end up in the Europa League?

Basically do you want to finish 4th more because a) it's high up the tabel or b) for CL football? Personally I couldn't give a shit if we finish 2nd or 3rd if we don't win the league. Makes no odds to me.

as someone whose team used to be a regular member of the b-pack there is definitely a lot of pride and prestige in seeing our team finish 3rd/4th above the top teams. It's a huge boost and should really be an opportunity to capitalise on - CL football coming with the opportunity to sign better players and perhaps push on further.

or sell all your best players and implode over the next 6 or 7 seasons ... y'know, whatever

pragmatically, spurs are unlikely to make waves in the CL next year and will get dumped on.

BUT, us qualifying for it is important because it means the likes of liverpool and city won't have the CL carrot to dangle in front of potential signings over the summer. City in particular could really kick on a couple of steps if they got 4th.

finishing 4th would be amazing for them but even 5th or 6th is a real statement of intent.
It shows that even at the halfway point of their remodelling they're right up there and with the money they'll be able to attract the missing pieces they need to break the top 4 next season.
and they are definitely top four next season.

and Huddlestone is rubbish. Spurs haven't got some of the most exciting attacking players around have they, but they've got a very decent squad. I'd never call Redknapp tactical but he can certainly motivate.

rubgy and cricket are arguing that they will be financially fucked without the money they get from sky.
football will be hurt but it generates a lot of revenue in other ways (tickets, merchandise) that the other sports can't come close to.

They've got the power to do this, although if Sky appeal it'll drag on into the next government and the Tories have threatened to rip Ofcom's balls off.

They were quite clever with the deal though - the premium content on Freeview bandwidth deal is something that Sky have been wanting for a few years now... giving them that in return for lower wholesale prices could make them think twice about complaining too much.

Almunia replaced Lehmann and Clichy was on the bench. Diaby and RVP may have been subs too. Walcott was at the club but was left out to join up with the England squad. Senderos would have been involved too.

Rooney is usually anonymous against Chelsea (same way Drog usually goes missing against Utd), it might even benefit Fergie to be able to play someone who isn't usually a passenger in that fixture. Their biggest problem will be if Fletcher is still too knackered and Park/Valencia/Carrick are all as shit as they were last night again.

I'm not in the least worried about going to OT, and I think we can win there, and win well at that. But I'm basing that more on the fact that United midfield has struggled to put three passes together in their last few matches, while Malouda and Lampard have looked fantastic in the last 180 minutes. If we're going to win, I reckon that will be where the victory will come from.

they can't score against a load of cloggers who have their only striker out injured, best midfielder gone off (after a tackle that looked suspiciously like one of wengers despised leg-breakers), and a crippled catpain and centre back both in tears.

to be 2-0 down against a team that were making them look silly and still recover to snatch a draw was very admirable. Barca shouldn't have let Arsenal back in the game but you have to credit them, especially Walcott who was excellent when he came on.

and was used towards the beginning of the season. I think he'd been out injured for a while and then has struggled to get back in the reckoning because of the performances of other players. He's not likely to dislodge Puyol or Pique and Busquets does a great unfussy job in midfield. This would be my guess anyway, Barca didn't buy him to never use him. I'll ask my Barca fan friend, he'll know.

that first 20 minutes from Barcelona was an absolute tour de force, incredible stuff. Arsenal basically had about 3 chances and took 2 of them, so fair play to them and the second leg should be one hell of a game.

was absolutely embarassing. just should not happen at any level. shambolic defensively, barcelona should be out of sight. wenger's been caught now trying to chance things - risking Gallas who was clearly unfit and is now injured again (why? because he signed two players, Silvestre and Campbell, who he can't trust), playing a midfielder at centre back against the greatest attacking team in Europe, not bothering to sign a halfway decent goalkeeper in January - you just don't get away with that kind of shit. also, Arshavin might be a funny man but his attitude and body language on the pitch is disgraceful.

"how in hell did we get a penalty? how in hell did puyol get send off? how in hell did we draw that? why were we so cynical and horrible with challenges?" or else you might embarrass yourselves.

barca are to arsenal what arsenal are to scunthorpe. wenger is a gigantic hypocrite prick.

what an incredible game of football though. question for the older DiSers amongst us - have you ever seen a footballing side as good as Barcelona of the past two seasons, in your lifetime? i can't even imagine it.

hopefully it'll be the right result and it'll be 12, 000 - 0 at the nou camp. or, quite simple, barca comfortably beating them. the odds of arsenal going through should be 100 to 1.

and i say this completely genuinely, and i'm not trying to wind you up whatsoever.

can you really be proud of that performance, both in a footballing quality way or in terms of morality? can you be vaguest bit proud of wenger's tactics? do you think you were ridiculously fortunate to get a penalty, and a draw?

and we came from 2-0 down to give ourselves a glimmer of hope. A bit of good fortune, yeah sure. Are we going out? Probably. Ask me if I give a shit right now. We're still in the tie just about, that's all I care about, and I'm happy that we did manage to hang on in there.

see Stuttgart in the last round. Drew 1-1 away from home, never on fire, never looked like they were too bothered about winning after they got the away goal. Mullered the Germans back in El Campo Nou

in fact, Barca have now drawn 8 of their last 9 away Champions League games. They have a gameplan, isn't it

Arsenal were pretty poor throughout, but Barca were happy with the scoreline as it was and weren't going to press any further. The onus was on Arsenal to get back in the game, and get back they did so fair play. But they aint progressing, i can tell you that

in any way, was that not a penalty? Clumsy and not intended, but anyone with even a basic grasp of the rules can see it has to be given. Else what happens, loads of fouls in the box get committed by players hiding them as mistakes.

Barcelona were amazing but they should have won by a mile but towards the end let Arsenal in and maybe tired themselves out. Mr Inconsistency Walcott was getting by them easily.

Fabregas is clearly going for goal and shaping up to shoot, gets nudged in the back and it puts him off the shot. I'm not even convinced Fabregas would have even had a great view/awareness of Puyol to see him coming in the first place.

Plus I'm not even sure your argument holds up even if it were true - even if Fabregas had deliberately moved his body in between Puyol and the ball, Puyol still ultimately makes contact with Fabregas rather than the other way round, and hence plays the man and not the ball and hence commits the foul, hence it being a penality.

Puyol was very unlucky and I think it's a flaw of the law that a foul like that has to lead to a red card but it was still unquestionably a penalty.

if you don't send people off for blatant fouls in goalscoring positions then it would become a big problem. Playing the percentages, deciding whether to let them score from 5 yards or let them try to score from 12 yards (plus a yellow card)

this one looked borderline, but i wouldn't have been surprised to see it go either way. Totally undeserved on the balance of play though

I mean in a way I admire Arsenal for getting back into it when so fiercely against the odds but that's pretty much the same way as I'd admire Hull if they came back from 2-down to scrape a draw against Man Utd and it's got to be a huge worry for Arsenal (and perhaps the rest of the teams in the competition) how big the gulf of class between the two teams was.

It's KiK/Nikeshoes trotting out his usual 'I hate Febregas' rubbish. It could have been the most stonewall penalty ever and he'd have still claimed that Fabregas was trying to get it/used hypnosis on the referee.

Barca were cry-inducingly good tonight. If Arsenal go through because of Fabregas falling over... well, fortunately it probably won't happen. Two away goals. Still the biggest discrepancy between scoreline and relative quality that I've seen at this level in ages.

it's embarassing what goes on at the club though sometimes, starting three players tonight who were clearly unfit. Wenger's a great man and a legend, but his decision-making in recent seasons has been suspect. just cos you're a fan doesn't mean you should ignore these things.

he wants to go to places with an odds on chance of winning the league, not a decent chance. he's not the sort of man(ager) to pick jobs where he can prove to others how good he is. Which means real madrid next year for a couple of years until fergie retires (or chelsea beg him to return), then portugal in 2016 or so.

and at the moment Liverpool would certainly be that. I can't see him going back and managing a club he's already managed, which is unfortunate. I'd hate him at Madrid, they've already stolen Kaka from me :( I'd hate him at Liverpool, I'd hate him at Man Utd. Can't win.

but Mourinho would enjoy a job like the one at Liverpool, I see him as the type who'd get bored easily. He takes challenges but at huge clubs, nothing wrong with that. In a way Real Madrid would still be a challenge with the way Barcelona are at the moment and their recent poor record in Europe.

it happens every season, players been put out on the pitch when they're in no condition for it and ending up making things worse. i don't think it happens at any other club to the extent it does at Arsenal. wilful self-destruction.

spurs had absolutely crippling injuries for about 5 years between 97-03. And Liverpool (and everyone else) always had crocks like redknapp, owen, rob jones and mcmanaman.

the game has gotten faster, don't really think the injuries are proportionally worse or more common. certain teams (at the moment, wham and arse stick out) just seem to get them all in a bunch, which may or may not be down to the training methods or physio staff at the club.

so I can't really read the whole thread, but basically - great comeback by Arsenal.

With both first choice Barcelona centre backs suspended for the second leg - Puyol especially is gonna be a massive loss what with their full backs basically being wingers and being without their backline leader - I can see this being very very interesting if Arsenal play to their potential.

Messi was nowhere after 15 minutes. An absolute non-performance.

PS. I have read a few comments, and surely Fabregas did come off when he got injured - are you confusing him with Nasri perhaps?